Nintendo Downplays a 3DS Lite in the Near Future

Now that the 3DS is out in the U.S. and U.K. what do you think? If you really want Nintendo‘s latest portable handheld, but aren’t sure whether you want to drop the $250 on one because you’re worried about a 3DS Lite on the horizon, you’d better stop right there. Nintendo of America’s president Reggie Fils-Aime says that although a 3DS redesign is inevitable, newcomers need not worry for now. Fils-Aime even goes further to advise 3DS buyers to purchase Best Buy insurance to sell back their units when a new model comes out. The man’s not doling out sage advice, but that’s because his company is in the business of selling 3DS systems now, not later. It’s not the aesthetics that we’re worried about on the 3DS – the system’s design is the culmination of four variations of the Nintendo DS (DS, DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL), but rather the stuff inside that makes the 3D magic happen – mainly the weak battery life that lasts only up to about five hours. When the DS launched in 2004, the thing was ugly as sin – it was big, chunky and its screens sucked. With the DS Lite in 2006 (18 months after the DS launch), a lot of those quips were silenced. Will we see the 3DS get a Lite version in just as much time? It’s entirely possible, given that as soon as new hardware is launched, work on redesigns or next-gen hardware begins as well. Remember this: if you’re always waiting for the next best thing, won’t you be waiting for eternity?